One of India’s top digital payment and finance services, PhonePe, plans to introduce its own app store to compete with the Google Play Store. The most recent action tries to give Android users a native alternative to Google’s choice. In India’s payments market, the company already competes directly with Google Pay.
PhonePe’s app store is in development!
PhonePe, according to a report by TechCrunch, is trying to sell itself to the people of India by promising to develop a hyperlocalized service by employing multilingual solutions. The Google Play Store is now the most popular app distribution channel due to its extensive app catalogue and, arguably, stringent security measures. For the Indian Android market, PhonePe encourages developers to create “high-quality” services within the framework it provides.
This follows the recent acquisition of IndusOS, a company with Indian roots that provides services to end customers through strategic alliances with manufacturers of smartphones.
An internal company document states that one of PhonePe’s main selling points will be its ability to provide a “premium user experience via custom targeting and high-quality advertising.” There is a live chat feature available around the clock, with support for 12 different languages.
It is expected that all Android original equipment manufacturers will have access to the app store in the coming months. The unique aspect of this app is that it will be designed specifically for use with Google Play Store software. This may end up happening for PhonePe because, as some of you may not know, the Competition Commission of India just issued an order allowing developers to list their app stores on the Play Store.
A representative from PhonePe said the company sees a chance to challenge Google’s 97% market share. The firm thinks users will respond positively to a more regionalized and customised app store.
We are unable to assess the practicability of the strategy at this time. The success of PhonePe remains to be seen, but the strategy behind it certainly seems promising.
